BC Employment by Sector February 2013

Below are some graphs highlighting Vancouver's and BC's employment over the past 15 years in various sectors. But first here are the historical employment, participation, and unemployment rates (CANSIM tables 282-0117 and 282-0087)

The participation rate has not recovered. Work by Calculated Risk indicates that most of the decline in participation rate in the US is demographic-based and not necessarily a sign of long-term "disillusioned" unemployed. I would expect a similar demographic effect to exist in Canada and BC.

The labour rate spreads between the rest of BC and Vancouver CMA are graphed below. A positive number means the rest of the province has a higher number than Vancouver. In terms of unemployment Vancouver has typically been about 50bps lower than the rest of the province, but lately that differential has been negative.

Here are the contributions of the two major goods producing sectors (construction and manufacturing) as a percentage of total employment. These are seasonally unadjusted with 3 month moving average applied (CANSIM table 282-0111).

Construction employment as a percentage of total employment is near highs of at least the past 20 years. The service producing sectors (NSA) (12 month average):